Chapter Twelve

The Descent

Agloff was rooted where he stood. The breath of the crowd pulsed against his neck. His own became sharp and shallow. The thud drew closer, the lumber of footsteps.

Oxford pushed his hands through the melee, and the crowd parted. He yelled something and a moment later the lights fizzled dimly. Everyone looked to everyone else for comfort but found no respite. Across the hall, Oxford whispered something to Alice, and she beckoned to the chamber. He watched Oxford watch her, with quiet adoration.

‘Let us all remain calm!’ Her voice carried great authority. The rocking of the hall did not break her tone. ‘And not whip ourselves into a frenzy. A panic. Can everyone, please, slowly and safely, single-file leave the hall.’ As she spoke, Oxford weaved from table to table, gathering men and women towards him. Soldiers? Agloff thought. ‘We will take the main stairwell.’ In her authority, Agloff saw the strength that made her so right for Oxford. They both commanded a presence he did not possess.

Agloff slipped into the crowd, but a hand reached for his back and yanked him out.

‘Agloff,’ grunted Marty, panting. He looked ill almost, shaken out of his drunkenness. ‘I need you.’ Marty nodded to Oxford who shifted to his side. Merry and Memphis trailed behind him, confused, as Lady waved in protestation, unwilling to leave. Two guards cantered into the hall, beating away the evacuees and towards Marty.

‘Sir,’ one said. He leaned to whisper in Marty’s ear. The old soldier said nothing for a long time after the guard vanished. The five of them fell into a circle.

‘Winter,’ he said eventually. ‘Cutting through the front door. Three minutes, tops.’

‘What, how,’ Merry barked.

Oxford rubbed his brow. ‘Picked up our, Agloff’s, trail from March Town?’

Marty nodded. ‘Would seem so.’

‘You said they’d never come here,’ Agloff said. ‘I thought point of me being here was that so Jask wouldn’t attack!’

Marty and Oxford looked at each other. Marty sighed. ‘I… miscalculated. Jask’s called Fall’s bluff. Jask knows you’re here and he’s coming for you. First thing Fall’s gonna do is find you. So you stay away from everyone else.’

‘Is there a plan?’ Memphis grunted.

This was Marty’s domain, Fall’s master of war. The battle to come was his responsibility. ‘They’ll work their way down floor-by-floor. We’ll evacuate as many as possible to floor eighty and set up a barricade there.’

‘Will that keep them out?’ Oxford said.

‘It’ll damn well have to,’ snapped Marty. ‘Bastards can’t kill every sod here. You’re with me,’ he said at Oxford who nodded, rounding his troops behind him, soldiers adorned in tuxes and ball gowns. ‘We’re going the armoury on Thirty-One.’

The operative started barking orders, yelling for those in retreat to head to floor eighty. They bottlenecked at the doorway. Shouts of ‘eighty!’ reverberated round the walls, between the anxious chatter and footsteps. Agloff knew the path he was on led to Jask. But this was sooner than he expected.

‘What should I do?’ he said.

Marty thought. ‘Help evacuate the people, best you can. Work down.’

‘But you said—’

‘Stay off the main walkways. Get people out, but don’t follow them. Use the other stairwells where you can. Fall’s priority will be finding you.’ Agloff swallowed. He said nothing. ‘Get Ariea too.’

‘But—’

‘I know you’ve fallen out. But if Fall can’t get you… She’s the next best thing. Get her. Stay with her.’ Marty began to walk as Oxford gestured the way down. ‘Now seems as good a time as any to make up!’ Marty yelled, arms raised, as he backed into the crowd.

Agloff’s chest pumped. Then Merry reached out a hand to his shoulder and he found a moment’s calm. It was all he needed. He could not panic. Take it minute-by-minute, he told himself. Floor-by-floor.

He paused, then looked at her and Memphis. ‘Okay.’

They slipped from the ceremonial chambers, careful to avoid the stare of Fall’s denizens, and took an access ladder down to Four. Up here, the residential floors were all steal and oil, puffing with steam and mired by stains. Agloff gagged on fumes from the water plant. They poked their heads around a corner to catch a glimpse of the stairway spiralling down through the main plaza. At least for now, the thrum of Winter above was distant. Guards hoisted children from the crowds by the mess hall, batons aloft, snapping them to the ground by the backs of their knees. They were herded into groups by the side like cattle.

‘What’re they doing?’ Merry whispered.

Memphis cursed under his breath, shielding Lady behind him. ‘Getting their bribe ready for Winter… Bastard.’ The last word carried untold rage in its quietness.

‘Will it work?’

Memphis shot a look across Agloff. ‘Depends how many lives you’re worth.’

Agloff met his eyes but said nothing. He was sure if Jask wanted him, Jask would not stop until he got him. He would either kill the rest and take Agloff or take Agloff and kill the rest. There was no winning, he told himself, as the guards inflicted their miseries.

The air then snapped, and two gunshots blasted the plaza into a deadly silence. A mother wailed. Agloff’s eyes refused to recede from the image. She broke from the slog, her arms dragged back as she tried to hold her son a final time as he bled. But the Underground refused her the luxury. Agloff wondered what his crime might have been- the cracking of his neck? A nervous sideways glance? A clenched fist?

Two more shots, and two more thuds. Cries and whimpers were herded by the clicking of firearms. Their owners yelled for silence, and it came. The crowd subsided, trundling onwards and downwards. The slightest protestation was met by the rifle butts of their protectors. It was in that scene Agloff saw the Underground Memphis saw, the one Oxford refused to admit.

Memphis made to lurch forwards from the corner. Agloff dragged him back. He clasped a hand tightly across his mouth. ‘You can’t,’ he whispered. Memphis’ body shook under his palm, but he obeyed.

They waited for the crowd to thin and passed the corridor, in hopes of catching any stragglers from the party.

There! Wordlessly, Agloff scampered through the walkway as the last guard led the procession to the next floor. She followed at the back. Stern-eyed, Ariea kept a distance to the guy ahead. Her silvery dress was unmistakable. Agloff marched at her so fast that he had no time to talk himself out of it. At the last moment, he reached out a hand to grab hers. Before she had even clocked who it was, she lashed a palm at Agloff’s cheek.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Agloff clutched his face, stumbled back as Merry and Memphis surrounded him. ‘I deserve that,’ he said. ‘Ariea.’

She said nothing, considering him. Then, she took a timid step forwards. She launched her arms around him, only to withdraw in haste. Her stare flickered from the floor, to Lady, to Merry, to Memphis. Anywhere but Agloff. She reached a hand to ruffle Lady’s hair.

‘‘Ria,’ the girl said stiffly.

Finally, Ariea turned to Agloff. ‘I didn’t mean to hit you. But you do deserve it. I got- got caught up upstairs, and everyone was leaving and then I just kinda got swept up. I couldn’t turn back so I thought you three would be there somewhere, so I just started walking real slow and....’ Ariea gasped, like she had forgotten to breathe. ‘I’m happy to see you but I am still very pissed off!’

‘I understand,’ Agloff said feebly, unsure if he truly did. ‘I—’

‘You kids kiss and make up later?’ cut in Memphis. ‘We need to get people safe.’

‘What’s happening?’ Ariea said.

‘It’s Winter.’

That was all the catching up Ariea needed. She gave a look that said, ‘of course it is.’ ‘I saw guards hurting children. I mean, I can’t just let that slide. We save one person, it’s a win.’

‘Glad we agree,’ mused Agloff.

‘Don’t push your luck. I can slap you again. On purpose this time.’

‘We’ll do what Marty said,’ announced Agloff. ‘First sign of trouble though, we run.’ He turned to Ariea and felt her heavy stare trace through him like he were a ghost. If she had something to say she thought better of it.

They split up through the blocks of residential floors, scaling their balconies to clear out anyone left sitting, and reconvened at the smaller stairwells. Each floor, their operation slickened. Agloff yelled in whispers at people to remove themselves. Some listened. Some thought he was mad. The war above drew closer, noises sharpened into chants and screams and the spray of gunfire. Then the sceptics promptly gathered their things and beat it down below. The guards didn’t care to evacuate them. Left like sheep to the wolves, as if that would somehow sate them.

‘One more floor!’ Ariea said as they downed the stairway to Eighteen.

Memphis scowled ‘Can you not hear what I’m hearing? Ariea, they are two minutes away. One more floor we won’t get out.’

‘One more floor. Agloff…’ Ariea said, because, for some reason, they seemed to look to him for leadership. Her face begged.

Agloff looked between them. Their eyes were like daggers. He turned to Lady. He was ashamed either way. ‘We go straight down,’ he declared. But his voice was dearth of the authority they entrusted him with. One floor wasn’t worth losing everything, was it? Ariea pounded a few steps ahead, skirting straight past the landing of Eighteen.

‘Ariea, listen—!’

She stopped and looked at him, and he extended an arm down the railing as he made to meet her. ‘I’m sorry, about every stupid thing I did, but…’

Her could hear her eyes roll. She laughed. ‘We doing this now, Agloff? Really? You wanna go down, so let’s go down. Leave those kids to the guards that really look out for them, huh? I am sure you are very, very sorry. But that doesn’t make how I feel just go away. Nor does this.’

The descent was silent. They hit the landing of Fifty-Four, never more than a couple floors ahead of their pursuers. Agloff sensed the real battle would come below on floor Eighty, where Marty was setting his barricade. Agloff’s legs began to cry, joints aching, but he pushed through the pain.

The deeper they ran into the Underground, the denser the forest of soldiers they had to pick their way through. Half a dozen more of them galloped through an intersection splitting Agloff from the main plaza. Agloff ducked out of sight, into an alcove, his back against the cold pipes, and pulled the nearest person close to him. The five of them were pressed against each other. Ariea breath was heavy in Agloff’s ears. She nodded ever so faintly when the way was clear.

‘We need another way down!’ she said, as quietly as she could manage. ‘We can’t get through them. They’ve not found Agloff so they must be blocking off all the stairs.’

‘Why can’t we go through them?’ Memphis said.

‘In case you haven’t noticed, we have no weapons. You saying we wrestle them? I am in… a dress, Memphis! And we have a kid with us.’

‘I’m eight and three quarters,’ snapped Lady. ‘That’s not a kid anymore.’

Ariea responded with a curt smile.

‘We could find a weapon,’ said Agloff.

Ariea folded her arms. ‘How we gonna do that?’

‘We get one alone. We can take one guy, the five of us.’

‘Worth a try?’ said Merry.

Ariea nodded.

The main stairwell in the plaza was now deserted but for a pair of guards. Agloff nodded for them to take a right into the mess hall. To their advantage, the lights had been powered off, so their shadows couldn’t betray them. They slipped between the tables, and out back through the kitchens.

Agloff thought it best to stick to the perimeter, where the guards might have been scarcer. Agloff led them through the steam of the power and water hubs. He winced at the faintest creaking of metal, as the pressure adjusted all around them.

There was a lift access to the side, but it was shielded by two more guards, shrouded in their white robes.

Bang!

The entire floor seemed to burst and the ceiling shook. A white light fizzled in Agloff’s eyes. His ears rang. He leapt across the corridor, thinking the noise had exposed them, only to see the guards’ backs turned. Smoke billowed from the lift. Two gunshots popped from its mist and the guards flopped to the ground.

Agloff led the others, darting down a side alley and into a squat building, covered by the smoke. He pulled back the curtain drawn across a window and peered back towards the lift. A march of pilgrims flooded into the main walkway, clad in grey armour. They moved with a military precision Fall’s men did not possess. Their rifles trained on every corner and sightline.

Memphis hushed them along, leading the queue through the building, Agloff kept throwing wary glances back. They passed from square room to square room, punctuated by single-occupant desks, and Agloff realised they were in the school. How excited Lady must have been to see this before. Now, dark and deserted it was entirely sinister.

Then, the line of a torch flashed through the rainbowed windows of the classroom and Agloff and the others ducked to the floor as one, crawling for safety.

The door yawned open and a woman’s breath rasped as she trod through the room, every step slow and deliberate. Agloff was sure she had seen them. She knocked on every door, every desk, as if playing with her food before she ate it. Agloff and Ariea lurked under the teacher’s desk; Merry and Memphis behind a cabinet opposite.

The pilgrim unsheathed her longsword.

With a fell swoop, she yanked a curtain back and Lady screamed in its place. The pilgrim hacked at the fabric, as Lady dived sideways. She ducked a second blow and tumbled towards Memphis. Suddenly, all five of them stood face forward and the pilgrim looked a fraction less assured.

Merry’s eyes narrowed and she and Ariea charged for their enemy. Ariea stepped to Merry’s side. It took a swing at Ariea. She lurched for the floor, snatched a knife from the pilgrim’s boot. Merry occupied her sword. With a violent grunt, Ariea stuffed her blade at the enemy’s calf and the pilgrim howled. Her blows became awkward and unrefined.

Merry hurled herself onto a desk and clasped her legs across the woman, restraining her by the knees. Agloff and Memphis rushed to pin her still.

With a knowing look, Ariea presented her blade at the side of her blood-stained dress. She drew breath and time slowed in its passing. Ariea thrust the blade between the pilgrim’s ribs. At once, the body foundered to the ground, blood spilling between its lips.

Merry watched with intensity as life left the woman’s body. Together, she and Ariea panted, then turned to each other in adoration. They both smiled and then embraced the other tightly. Merry stooped to collect the pilgrim’s longsword, guarding it behind her arm.

Agloff waved for them to move the body out of sight and they ducked a second string of torchlights passing by the classroom window. The pilgrims seemed ignorant of their colleagues’ demise. Agloff guided them onwards, and out the back of the school.

A second raft of troops clattered down the corridor. The booms of grenades, and the racket of orders shook Agloff’s ears. He surmised they were now in the heart of the battle, as Fall’s defence faltered floor-by-floor. Winter was mowing through them like grass. Might Malvo Jask himself have been here, Agloff thought. He could only be tens of feet away. He might never know.

Agloff led them left to another staircase, on the opposite side of the plaza from where they had come. It was marked off by red tape, but unoccupied. Agloff checked the way at least half a dozen times, before crossing the walkway to the stairwell. He waved furiously for them to follow.

‘MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!’

A flurry of Fall’s soldiers stormed the stairs. ‘YOU! STAY THERE!’ one commanded and two troops stopped off at the top of the landing.

Agloff reached an arm to back his followers round the angle of the landing. The bulk of the troops marched passed. Their helmets blinded them to Agloff and the others behind the wall. He held his breath. He wanted to scream, as the tide of the day turned against him second-by-second.

‘What are we meant to do now!’ whispered Memphis.

To Agloff’s left, it was a dead end. To his right, the main plaza was a battleground. A volley of smoke, bullets and violent bangs. Each side slugging heavy blow against heavy blow.

They had blocked the stairs. They had closed the lifts. There had to be another way down, thought Agloff. The Underground was a maze, but there had to be tunnels or passageways, perhaps maintenance access.

Memphis repeated himself.

‘Lemme think!’ snapped Agloff. Then, it hit him. There was another way down, one Winter, and even Fall’s guards wouldn’t have known.

‘Follow me!’ he said, and Memphis cursed under his breath, but Agloff didn’t have the time to share his great idea. He led them to the far end of the corridor, past a deserted checkpoint.

Every floor was essentially the same he thought. They varied in detail, if not in structure. Agloff traced the way through his mental map of this place, vaguely formed in his mind’s eye, to where he hoped their salvation lie in wait.